Marketing Pros: Are You're Messages Truthful and Non-Deceptive? In the United States, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has the authority to impose penalty against advertisers whom violate Federal Standards for truthful advertising. The FTC considers a message to be deceptive, if they include statements that are likely to miss-lead reasonable customers and the statements are an important part of the purchasing decision. Failures to include important information are also considered deceptive. Also, the FTC also looks at so called "implied claims?" Claims you don't explicitly make but that can be inferred from what you do or don't say.